Pope Benedict

The more people love Jesus, the more they will want to spend time with him in prayer; and the more they pray, the more they will resemble him, Pope Benedict said.

While God always listens to people’s pleas for help and is always ready to respond, “our prayer must first be an act of listening to God who speaks to us,” the pope said Sept. 5 at his weekly general audience.

The audience marked the beginning of a series of papal audience talks on prayer in the Book of Revelation. The Book of Revelation teaches that priority in prayer must be given to listening to God’s word and responding with “praise to God for his love (and) for the gift of Jesus Christ, who brings us strength, hope and salvation.”